PV Panel Disposal and Recycling

Photo of two workers in a manufacturing line.

Two workers monitor a manufacturing line for cadmium telluride solar panels.

Because solar modules (panels of PV cells) have useful lives of up to 30 years, the amount of waste generated by retired modules is currently very small. By about 2020, however, this growing industry will produce a growing PV waste stream. PV products are generally safe for landfills, because PV materials are usually encased in glass or plastic, and many are insoluble. Some modules, however, could be classified as hazardous waste, a situation that is prompting the PV industry to develop recycling processes for modules.

Because PV systems are widely dispersed, and because each system has relatively small amounts of semiconductor material per cell, recycling PV will be a challenging task. However, the industry is looking ahead and preparing for this challenge. The PV industry hopes to learn from new processes for recycling batteries and electronic devices such as computers.

Some recycling processes may even allow some PV components to be recovered intact. This is turn would allow companies to produce recycled PV modules at a lower cost, and using less energy, than ever before. A 1998 workshop examined the challenges of recycling PV systems and summarized the processes and costs developed at that time. See the conference summary for more details.

A specific process for recycling cadmium telluride and copper indium diselenide PV modules is examined in "A Process to Recycle Thin-Film PV Materials," prepared by Drinkard Metalox, Inc., for the 26th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, held in 1997.

Another technical paper (PDF 184 KB) prepared at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory looks specifically at concerns about the cadmium used in manufacturing cadmium telluride PV cells. Download Adobe Reader.